Posted Sunday, May 13 2012 at 18:20
Eventually, there is some good news for Pakistan and Associate and Affiliate countries from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the powerful Indian cricket board that reportedly engineered the sacking of Arjuna Ranatunga as the head of the Sri Lanka Cricket because of his opposition to Indian Premier League.
Sri Lanka’s English language daily, The Island, quoting SLC documents, said Sri Lanka’s World Cup-winning captain Ranatunga was removed “after the BCCI applied pressure on the Sri Lankan government.”
His sin? He requested for Sri Lanka’s players to return early from the 2009 Indian Premier League to play against England in a Test series whose dates were clashing with those of the lucrative league.
As concerns Pakistan, the BCCI is ready to accommodate a team from Pakistan in the Champions League Twenty20 which is for India in October.
The BCCI is the biggest stakeholder in the Champions League Twenty20 which it co-owns with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa.
During its working committee meeting last week, BCCI also decided to set up matches between IPL teams and Associate and Affiliate countries.
That should be good news for Kenya which has not been getting matches against experienced sides even though it has been on a losing streak and has been humbled even by a lowly Nepal.
It was not clear whether these matches will be played in India or in the respective Associate/ Affiliate member countries, but if a decision is to be made that they be played in the latter, there would still be a hitch for Kenya, which is being deemed as a security concern.
It is just the other day that Mike Hesson, the national team coach resigned over security reasons, and shortly afterwards, it emerged that matches between Kenya and Namibia have been postponed due to security reasons.
Even though Hesson’s resignation over insecurity was widely reported in the world media, more so in the countries whose nationals make the bulk of tourists visiting Kenya, no government functionary has come forward to clarify that Kenya is safe, or to deny that Kenya is unsafe.
Whether true or not, statements that Kenya is unsafe need to be addressed for the good of the game of cricket in particular, and sports in general.
But then, sports is not the only sector that will suffer as long as the relevant authorities continue to bury their heads in the sand.
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